1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telephone device for carrying out a call request notice upon receiving a call request sent from another telephone device. It should be noted that the terminology “call request notice” shall be interpreted in its broadest sense, and is a concept comprising a variety of possible techniques for notifying a user that a call request has been received. For example, outputting a sound (ringing), vibrating, displaying a prescribed message, or changing the lighting pattern of a lamp may be referred to as examples of a “call request notice”.
2. Description of the Related Art
EP0999683A2 discloses a system in which a facsimile device and a plurality of handset devices exist in a single extension network. Upon receiving a call request, the facsimile device sends a call request notice instruction to a handset device that is not in use (i.e. a handset device that is idling). This makes it possible to ring the idle handset device.